Summary

In this chapter, Chapter 1: Off Diamond Head: Honolulu, 1966-1967, Finnegan recounts his move to Honolulu from southern California when he was in 8th grade. At his school, Kaimuki Intermediate, he was, as a "haole" (or white person), considered an outsider. He writes that he was unaware at the time of the many ethnic groups in the school, which included Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Samoan, Filipino, and Portuguese students. Finnegan was immediately targeted by a large kid in shop class named Freitas who spoke a kind of pidgin English that Finnegan did not understand. When the teacher was not looking, Freitas would repeatedly bang a 2x4 into Finnegan's head. He writes that his parents were probably under a misconception when they sent him to this school, as the public school in their suburban California neighborhood had been quite good. The Hawaiian elementary school Finnegan's younger siblings--Kevin...